8/31 Last Day

The morning of the last day Stephie was up first. She was out of the tent sitting by the fire pit with some coffee watching the beautiful sun rise painting the sky from a navy blue to a pale yellow. We hit the trail early, a bit before 8am with dreams of hamburgers, beer, onion rings, and tacos on our minds. It wasn't long before we were triumphantly standing on chair rock taking pictures enjoying the views, and marveling at our tremendous speed. One problem: we weren't supposed to be on chair rock, it was supposed to be visible from the ridge we were supposed to be on to the West, and the trail just ended at chair rock. So we back tracked about 3/4ths of a mile to the road we crossed and saw no sign of the CT, luckily I had service and asked google how to get to Waterton Canyon. It told us to follow the road not even a quarter mile down a small hill and the trail was right there... we lucked out, BIG TIME. Back on track, we cruised down the mountain with out water, as we had dry camped the night before (carried what water we could because the camp site had none) towards the Platte River. When we got there we drank up, yes out of the Platte, but it was still a mountain river at this point, not the nastiness flowing under the 16th street bridge. Full of water we only had about 8 miles or so left, so we pushed on.

All of a sudden right on the side of the trail, next to where I had just placed my right foot, I heard a rattle, and saw a brown flash snap into that terrifying S shape. It was a prairie rattlesnake about the size of your forearm and maybe 3-4 feet long, and it was now on high alert right next to the trail. I told Stephie to STOP immediately! Even though she was probably 50 yards behind me, so she did, then came up the trail within about 10 feet of the snake, still poised to strike and rattling. I backed off down the trail a bit still keeping the snake in view, and he relaxed, laying down and stopping the chilling rattle. He slithered up a hill about 4-5 feet off the trail and curled up under a bush, and I instructed Stephie to quickly sneak around on the far side of the trail, out of reach of the snake. 492 miles of hiking the remotest parts of the Rockies and we see a snake 8 miles from "Denver".

After the snake incident we were both on high alert, and I'm sure our adrenaline was pumping so we crushed the next 2 miles to the road. We ended our hike with a 6 mile road walk through Waterton Canyon, I had saved enough snacks to have one every mile, which was marked on the side of the road with posts. There was also a sign when we got to the road that said: "Road closed due to bear activity. Thru hikers go around, or be aware there are bears in the area." We pressed on, and I asked Stephie if she had ever seen a rattlesnake in the wild, or a bear and she said no. After 3-4 miles of being on high alert for bears, talking, whistling, and just making noise we, or at least I kinda forgot about the sign and was just hiking along, ready for town. When all of a sudden around a turn about 75-80 yards away I saw a very black, very large cat. It was not a cat, but it seems my mind always thinks for a mili-second when I see a bear that it is a cat. It was a black bear cub. I told Stephie to stop yet again, and said there will be more let's hang out here a second. 2-3 seconds later mom came around the turn with another cub in tow behind her. They did not even notice us, as we were upwind, and they were headed straight up the hill. After about a minute watching them clamber up the hill we moved on, passing the 1.5 mile sign, again wondering how we went nearly 500 miles in the mountains with out seeing a snake or bear, but when we get to the city limit we see a rattler, and bear family within 7 miles of each other.

We finished, got our burgers, beer, onion rings, tacos, and macaroni and cheese, the server was surprised that it was all for the 2 of us. What a great trip, but next time we will NOT be on a time line.

Almost there 8/26

We have hiked 66 miles in the past 3 days, over multiple mountains, through holy cross wilderness, among others. We did 25 miles including a night hike, in beautiful weather with a little bit more than a full moon, to a waterfall and camped there in a field setting up a "short" 17 mile day into Copper Mountain. It was very strange seeing Copper, and even more strange seeing I-70, and eating over priced, ski resort pizza, which I probably would have paid more for.

We stayed with an old friend of mine who also worked for Sports Authority, but now lives in Dillon, Charlie Fox and his family. The stay has been the best stop on our trip, and it is going to be very hard to leave this relaxing oasis. But we are only 117 miles from Denver, and being homeless until we find a room, house, apartment, or old refrigerator box to live in. So it looks like it's back to huge days trying to get back in time for work.

23 miles is a long day 8-23

We did another 23, it was not fun. We were on the trail by 8:15, had 13 miles in by lunch, and were totally exhausted when we got to camp. I did see a bull elk this evening as we were climbing up to the peak of another mountain, he was pretty big. I think I startled him more than he did me. When he heard me, I guess, he kinda jumped, then took off running from the left side of the trail maybe 20 yards out, across the trail away from me. I totally could have hit him with a football on a perfect slant. Stephie was behind me so she didn't get to see him. Should be a bit easier 19 tomorrow starting with a gradual down hill. Currently we are 159 miles from the end, and about 32 miles from our next shower, burger, beer, and real bed!

I want more time. 8-21

I'm getting sick of 18-23 mile days. I want to be able to slow down, and enjoy this a bit more. But right now it feels like we either try to do bigger miles and finish before August 31st, maybe on it, which would mean I literally would have to be at work the next day, or relax, take our time and don't finish. I don't like the idea of either of them, but once I start something I like to finish it so for now we're still pedal to the floor.

Buena Vista was awesome. Thank you so much for all the boxes!! We had a ton of food to snack on while we were in town, and have plenty of snacks now.

Surprises 8/22

Today was full of surprises. Starting from the moment we hit the trail, at 8:30!! That's pretty good for us since we normally don't get on trail until around 9:30-10. As we went down a hill we noticed some raspberries, lots of raspberries, so naturally we sat down and ate our fill. Coming up a mountain that was very dry, and hot we both smelled a camp fire, which would be weird that early in the day. Upon summiting I saw a pile of smoking embers near the bottom of a dead stump, and no one around. I did Smokey proud by putting the fire completely out, all naturally, and honestly feel like I prevented a wildfire. We passed a fold up sports authority chair, which I relaxed in for a moment, brought to you by Sports Authority. After the desert environment, we entered a wet, green, luscious aspen forest, that changed from all aspen to all pine in a matter of steps, very cool. We ended our 19 mile day on the edge of twin lakes, which is huge, watching the sun set over mountains reflected in the lake below them, sitting by a nice warm fire.

8/19 Buena Vista

Well, we made it. I don't think 4-5 of my posts published, so here's what you've missed...

We got Bo taken care of, and a ride to Denver with people to watch him.

Watched the Animas river turn yellow, glad it was not a water source!

Crossed through 2-3 wilderness areas.

Passed the half way point, and hiked over 200 miles.

Did lots of road walking to get from mountain range to mountain range.

Hung out in a cool horse trailer for an afternoon.

Ran out of fuel, so it has been fire, or don't eat. We've been having lots of fires. Hope to get fuel this morning...

Split with the continental divide trail.

Camped on the top of a mountain and saw literally every star in the northern hemisphere. Was awoken by a furious thunder battle, and after that passed, we heard a chorus of coyotes all morning.

Hiked 5 miles the wrong way, yes we hiked the 5 miles back making it a 10 mile detour. However, we did get ice cream and sandwiches.

Stephie is pondering between Fievel, and Tiger Lilly for a trail name.

And made it to Buena Vista.

8/11 not a thru hike until Bo makes it one

There are lots of similarities between the AT and the CT. People are amazing, views are some that no one else will ever experience, same with the entire experience. But Bo wanted to make it feel more like my first thru hike. He wanted me to freak out, think my trip was over, then realize I have some pretty incredible friends, finish the hike, and make me feel bad when I see him again. So far we're still waiting on the incredible friends to come through, but it looks like we might luck out after all. If anyone is available to watch him for a week, weekend, or 3 weeks in Denver let me know. I'm antsy to get him all squared away, but the fact that some people are so willing to help out is not only humbling but also renewing of my faith in humanity. It seems like every time I lose faith in humanity, spending so much with people who are only looking out for themselves, all it takes is for me to go to the middle of nowhere, and have a problem before I realize: 1. My previous problems weren't that big (don't make a mountain out of a mole hill) 2. Good people tend to look out for each other and 3. There are good people every where you go, you just have to find them.